What’s The (Floor) Plan Stan?

We had so much fun showing you the ins and outs of our house’s exterior layout back in June, that we’re back to share Casa Petersik’s actual interior floor plan. We know it’s pretty hard to picture how rooms flow into one another when you’re looking at a series of photos (like the before & afters on our House Tour page), so here’s hoping this makes some sense out of the three bedroom, one and a half bathroom brick ranch that we call home…

Of course the house didn’t start out as a three bedroom (remember we moved our dining area into the living room and converted the formal dining room into a third bedroom by closing off the old door to the kitchen- which gained us a heckova lot more cabinet space?). Ah those were the days. Just for fun here’s the old dining room we inherited (see that doorway on the left that led into the old kitchen?)

And here’s the same room as a bedroom, with that doorway sealed off and drywalled (it already had a closet so it was practically begging to be converted):

And because we sealed off that doorway from the old dining room that led to the kitchen (see it there on the right in the picture below?) we were able to take an old room that looked like this…

… to an updated kitch with over 50% more counter space & storage now that the door on the right wall was replaced by an entire wall of cabinetry and appliances (including a dishwasher that the original floor plan never would have accommodated).

That’s one of the reasons we always encourage people to live in a space for a while before renovating, since it’s a solution we never would have thought of off the bat. Not in a million years. We also probably never would have had the guts to tear down the bifold doors and the wall in the laundry area to create a nice little exposed laundry nook that’s a lot less closed in (as you can see from the floor plan above, that hallway was a bit claustrophibic before we opened things up- just imagine a line where the bifold doors once were). Here are things mid-demo (so you can see where the old doors and upper wall were):

And here are things now, more open and functional (plus you can actually do laundry and have access to the back door which leads to the sunroom (back in the days of the bifold doors, if they were open they blocked access to the back door- frustrating, no?).

As you can see, a workable floor plan really does make all the difference. Not only can it make for a seamless feeling and effortless flow, but it can actually make day to day life easier and your entire house more functional for you and your family. And the glorious thing is that while others might consider a formal dining room a necessity or want to keep their washer and dryer behind closed doors, owning a home is all about personalizing it for the way you live so you love coming home to it every single day. So don’t be afraid to tailor your house to best meet your needs (unless you’re planning to sell, say, next week)… after all you’re the one paying the mortgage!

So what about you guys. Have you altered your floor plan in any way to accommodate something that the original layout was missing? Are you planning any restructuring to add functionality or just plain beauty to your home? Do tell.

Comments

Yay! How cool that you would share this :O) I’ve always been wowed by your kitchen/dining room/bedroom makeovers. SOOOOOO inspiring. It’s been your den that’s had me puzzled, though. I’ve often wondered, where in the heck IS it??? On the other side of the wall near the front door??? Etc. etc. Thanks for settling that for me. My online feng shui is back in perfect harmony now :O) ha ha ha

Kinda going along with previous posters comments – I’d love to see a drawn floorplan of how you would want your household to evolve. I remember you guys even talking about additions – just curious to see what’s in those creative minds! Maybe a future post idea? =]

That sounds fun! The only problem is that things change by the day (we like talking things to death before doing them, which actually helps us know that we’re making the right choice) so unfortunately many of the ideas that we mentioned in our comment above about how our house may evolve are just flickerings of an idea. Nothing’s set in stone for us yet!

I actually just redid my master bathroom’s layout. We used space from a closet to add enough room to the bathroom so that a soaking tub now fits where a tiny shower stall once was. I’m so glad I talked to a professional who was able to “find” the space to do that!

I love that you added such a snazzy layout feature… maybe one day you could add dimensions to it? When planning my own space, I often wonder if certain furniture would fit comfortably (especially in a office/ guest room) and I would love to know the specifics on your rooms as a reference.

I just bought a doozie of a fixer-upper, and I have been a HUGE fan of your blog since the day I googled “small space design” or something like that and stumbled upon you. I love your advice about living in a space for a while before you make changes, buy furniture, etc. One of the most frustrating things has been friends walking in and saying “You need to go buy a TV stand. And a bookshelf. And a new ______.” (It’s particularly frustrating when they say it while looking at the torn-apart bathroom- as if furniture is my top priority right now!) Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is, it’s nice to have a virtual “friend” that can relate to living in a less-than-perfect space for a while. You keep me sane!

Thanks for posting! I’ve always assumed your master and guest bedroom were swapped (meaning the master was next to the bath and the guest bed was next to the living room).

For anyone who wants to draw up their own floorplan there’s a program called Floor Planner (http://www.floorplanner.com/) that I used to create the floor plan posted on my blog. It’s incredibly easy to use.

nice floor plan! I love the space-efficiency, no loooong and narrow hallway which just consumes space without the possibility to at least store anything there… that’s the main problem with our rented apartment at the moment.

By the way, have you heard of this little program?http://www.sweethome3d.eu/index.jsp
(Of course, I’m not affiliated with the project…) It’s open source and free, and you can even add your floor plan as a background image to easily create a 3D plan with furniture and all. I love it to plan furniture rearrangements!

I absolutely LOVE your home! I love you taste in style and i am hoping to one day get my house to be exactly what I want! We bought our house last december. We knocked down a wall between the living room and formal dining room to make it one bit living space since we arent very formal people! Okay, well we didnt do it, we hired a professional. It has been the best investment/change we have done do far!! Although there are many other things we want to do, but it takes time and money both of which are MIA right now, well at least for the changes and updates we want to do!

This is one of my favorite blogs that I read, and your awesome is beautiful! I just dont understand how you saw ALL of this potential when you bought your house. Its so completely inspiring and great. You two really have a gift!

I’d actually wondered if you guys had any hallways. Do you believe in decorating the walls in the halls? Of course people do family photos, but I’ve never seen anything else really – and can’t decide if anything should go there or not. Love to hear what you think.

Good question! In long hallways we love the idea of a gallery effect with multiple frames but our hallway is just too short/small for us to add much art. We do have an idea for a little built-in shelf project at the end of the hall though. Stay tuned for those details…

What’s in the lower-left corner of your kitchen? It looks like nothing’s there in the floor plan, and it’s just kind of floating in what would otherwise be an open area in the middle of the kitchen/den/living room. I’d love to see a picture of that area from inside and outside of the kitchen, and how you use and/or decorate that little corner – it looks like a tough space to do anything with. And thanks! Love seeing the floor plan.

That’s just a light switch and a tiny slice of wall (but it’s weight baring so it had to stay). There’s not even art or a tiny table there since it’s so small but it still feels pretty proportionate since it sort of flows into the den doorway anyway. Hope it helps!

We just bought our first home–a five year old 1600 square foot house on a small lot–and while the lot size doesn’t really allow for any expansion we have big plans to put our stamp on it.
Someday we want to do a full kitchen reno to replace all of the builder grade cabinets and fixtures, but for now we are getting ready to paint the cabinets a glossy white. We also want to convert the linen closet in our master bath into a shower and replace the builder grade cabinets and lights (sooo much builder grade in our house. bleh.)
Our first big project (after painting the kitchen cabinets that is) is to replace the desert landscaping out front with a big patch of grass to compensate for the small (though beautifully landscaped) backyard. So no major reconstruction for our little home, but some small changes that we’re hoping make a big difference!